SECT. III. HYBRIDS. 



which nature seems to have assigned to their per- 

 fection. But as the necessary slowness of all ex- 

 periments of the kind, with regard to the fruit in 

 question, did not keep pace with the ardour of his 

 desire to obtain information on the subject, he was 

 induced to institute some tentative experiments 

 upon the common Pea, a plant well suited to his 

 purpose, both from its quickness of growth, and 

 from the many varieties in form, size, and colour, 

 which it afforded. In 177> a degenerate sort of 

 Pea was growing in his garden which had not re- 

 covered its former vigour even when removed to a 

 better soil. Being thus a good subject of expe- 

 riment, the male organs of a dozen of its immature 

 blossoms were destroyed, and the female organs 

 left entire. When the blossoms had attained their 

 mature state, the pollen of a very large and luxu- 

 riant grey Pea was introduced into the one half 

 of them, but not into the other. The pods of 

 both grew equally ; but the seeds of the half that 

 were nnimpregnated withered away, without having 

 augmented beyond the size to which they had at- 

 tained before the blossoms expanded. The seeds 

 of the other half were augmented and matured as 

 in the ordinary process of impregnation ; and ex- 

 hibited no perceptible difference from those of 

 other plants of the same variety, perhaps, because 

 the external covering of the seed was furnished en- 

 tirely by the female. But when they were made 

 to vegetate in the succeeding spring the effect of the 



